When you ask someone about hot, happening real estate markets, there are a few places that come to mind right off the bat: New York City. San Diego. Los Angeles. East coast and west coast. Real estate investors imagine having their hands in such prestigious real estate markets with beach side properties and high-end apartment lofts in the middle of the country’s biggest, most bustling cities.

For the investors that get there and love it: great! But there are hidden gems among the many lauded real estate markets: they’re not just promising, they’re already booming. Opportunities for investors of all types abound, from turnkey investments and single-family homes to commercial real estate and high-demand apartments in the middle of a metropolitan downtown.

So instead of looking east and west, we’re setting our sights somewhere in the middle: Houston real estate, Dallas real estate and Memphis real estate. A close look at the market conditions, trends and contributing factors to the health of their local housing markets reveals these three to be not only great candidates for real estate investing, but models of post-recession recovery.

On August 21, Inc. Magazine released their annual list of the 5000 Fastest Growing Companies In America....

And the Clothier family was honored to have Four Companies on this years' list.

Here are the 4 companies that were featured:

• Premier Realty Group (#587) - Memphis
• REI Marketing (#2604) - California
• Memphis Invest (#2622) - Memphis
• Premier Property Management Group (#2900) - Memphis, Dallas, Houston

The four companies are all featured on the Inc 500/5000 full list of companies.  For Memphis Invest, this was the fourth year in a row to be included on the list.  What an incredible achievement!

For those that may not recognize the second company listed, REI Marketing, that is the company founded and operated by Kent Clothier, Jr. out of Southern California.  REI Marketing developed and offers services including several educational programs and materials such as the vanity phone number brad 1-800-SELL-NOW,  FindCashBuyersNow.com and FindPrivateLendersNow.com.  Kent and his team have done an incredible job of serving the real estate investor community with quality products and services and they deserve this outstanding recognition!

It’s never too early to start imparting wise money-ways to the next generation. Teaching children about money can be a challenge. When it comes to investing it can be even harder since we have been trained for years that our investments are private and fear of loss keeps us from sharing with those around us.  Especially our children!

My kids love being a part of our real estate investing.  They want to visit the houses and see the work done.  They have no idea the behind the scenes, but there will be plenty of time for that later.  As for now, I want to teach them to be positive and brave and to respect money and investments.

There are plenty of philosophies on how best to educate and responsibly teach kids about finance. Some earn money through chores. Some have a weekly or monthly allowance. Some pay a small fine for trespasses, from slipping with a swear to putting bugs in their older sister’s bed.

Even as real estate investors, teaching our children how to handle money responsibly isn’t easy. Money and finances can be complicated — but that doesn’t mean we can’t use our wisdom from investing in real estate to impart good principles for the future of their money management.

While these tips primarily target younger children, remember that you can always impart your financial wisdom, whether you’re talking to 12-year-olds and teenagers or your grown children.

Established real estate investors who’ve been involved in raising private capital generally don’t have trouble finding private money lenders. After all, they’ve made a name for themselves and have (hopefully) proven themselves a worthy investment partner.

For newer investors or those who haven’t delved into the world of private money lending, however, raising capital can be a big challenge. Who do you ask? How do you ask? What will give you the best chance at getting funded for your real estate investment aspirations?

As with anything in real estate investment, smart planning and foresight are essential. Real estate investors need to know the best way to make their case to private money lenders if they want to be successful.

For real estate investors, money management is a big deal. After all, when you’re trying to save up for anything: your next big purchase, a vacation, retirement...it’s important to know where your money is going and if it’s being used most effectively. There are a lot of financial apps out there, but not all of them are worth their salt.

We’re looking at money management apps that are known for their high satisfaction rates, innovative approaches or useful features that shake up the way we plan our finances. And by the way: they’re FREE.

As we move on towards September and anticipate cooler weather, let’s take the chance to reflect on the temperature of the real estate markets that we’ve chosen to invest in. We’ve already covered Memphis and Houston, and now our attention turns to Dallas!

Similar to Houston, Dallas’ economy is affected by the state of the oil industry and, despite some recent lows, it hasn’t done much in the way of slowing Dallas real estate down.

Everyone has a different plan anda different preference when it comes to investing in real estate. Full-time, part-time, turnkey, fix and flip...the list is endless.

One would think that being a part-time real estate investor is the easiest way to go: and most of the time, that’s true. But it’s not because the investor is part time. In fact, if you go into the world of real estate investment without understanding the work that goes into it, you’ll wind up biting off more than you can chew.

Part-time investing—not relying on your investments as your only source of income, in other words—can be very rewarding. If done right, having a well thought out and secure business plan for investing in real estate is the surest pathway to earning passive income. But how exactly do you ‘do it right’?

Learn more about investing in Turnkey real estate with Memphis Invest.

How are people finding your real estate investment business? This is an important question to ask yourself not only in the beginning of your journey as a real estate investor, but throughout the entire process. Periodically, you need to look at and re-evaluate your real estate marketing strategies.

At Memphis Invest, we are constantly evaluating our strategy and reviewing how vistors are finding our website.  From there, we want to look at which visitors actually follow-through with one-to-one phone strategy sessions with a portfolio adviser and which ones become clients.  Not all marketing strategies create equal opportunities and some work better than others.

Being young isn’t easy. Granted, there are a lot of perks: energy, imagination, ambition...but there’s also a lack of experience that’s unavoidable and looked down upon by most seasoned professionals.  Unfortunately, looking down upon young real estate investors seems to be a past time for those who have been real estate investing for a while.

Young folks have a lot to offer, not only to their current generation, but to older, more seasoned investors, too. We all have to start somewhere, after all — why not start investing in real estate when we’re young?

There are three primary points to consider before changing things up:

1. As an investor, ensuring excellent customer service for your tenants is key to growing a positive reputation.  You will never make 100% of the tenants or even applicants happy 100% of the time.  However, put the effort in to hit that mark.  It will make it a lot easier to ignore the few who decide a nasty online post is their best route....whether it is truthful or not!

2. Many renters live paycheck-to-paycheck and value flexibility in paying rent.  This is a new reality and landlords as well as property management companies need to creatively figure out flexible payments.

3. Grace periods, though helpful to tenants, can promote bad habits.  Bad habits are the last thing you want to promote in a tenant!

With these in mind, consider: how can you innovate in how tenants pay their rent and improve customer service without extending too-lenient grace periods?